Bastian Knittel beats Ivan Dodig to move into second round – International German Open 2011
Playing each other for the second time ever, Bastian Knittel secured his win against the Croatian Ivan Dodig in the 1st round of the International German Open-Hamburg 2011. The fixture was played at the Rothenbaum Tennis
Court in Hamburg, Germany.
Bastian Knittel has been suffering a great deal as he lost in the Mercedes Cup 2011 only last week. The German gave another shot to his luck as he entered the Hamburg Open. Qualifying through the first stage, the 27 year-old made
it to the 1stround of the International German Open to play Ivan Dodig who had a 1-0 head to head lead against Knittel.
Ivan Dodig, currently ranked at World No.41, has been trained by Martin Stephanek since he turned pro in 2004. Clay being his favourite circuit, Ivan considers himself best at that. He has a strong forehand shot also his favourite.
The UNICEF Open finalist previously had his run over the German tank at the Almaty Challenger 1 where he slammed him 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-0. However, this time around the German successfully turned over the tables to level the head-to-head score.
The match started off with an exchange of breakpoints to level off the scores at 1-1. Carrying on with the match, both players had their wins on their respective serves until game 10. With scores 5-4 in favour of the local star,
Ivan served to lose yet another breakpoint and give away a win to the German international 6-4. Knittel led 1-0 in the match.
The second set start was yet laughter for the commentators. Knittel lost again on his set opening serve. However, this time Ivan Dodig won on his serve taking a 2-0 lead but his happiness did not last long enough as the German
bulldozed the Croatian with three games in a row 3-2 to take charge of the set. The Croatian levelled the scores after that 3-3 but that was just not enough. Like a merciless warden, the German poured misery onto the Croatian international in the next three
games take the set 6-3.
The German yet again won a thousand smiles for the day as he progressed to the next round of the International German Open 2011 to play against another Croatian Marin Cilic.
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